AD HOC topic -- meals and pictures from the cookbook.

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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I am confident that at least some people here are experimenting with the new “Ad Hoc at Home” cookbook by Thomas Keller. If you post your experiences here I will edit the header and take out the mushroom soup. BUT for now I will just discuss the soup.

Ad Hoc is, generally speaking, a departure from Keller’s previous cookbooks. “The French Laundry” and “Bouchon” have recipes that take several days to execute, in many cases. And if you follow exactly, he has you do very fussy and time consuming things. But his new Ad Hoc restaurant is a much less fussy place, there is not even a menu, you go eat whatever they are serving that night.

With all this in mind I thought his mushroom soup would be a snap, and volunteered to make it for a dinner party on last Saturday. What I learned was that it is really more of a throw-back to the other cookbooks. Of course I enjoyed making the soup but it was a little grueling.

First I had to find Cavolo Nero. I discussed that in a thread here and I thought I had it solved but when I went back to Wegman’s they were sold out. But I picked through the “normal” kale and found one bunch that had extra crinkly leaves, and the head produce guy confirmed that it was Cavolo Nero (lascinata or dinosaur kale). See below. I also had to buy a pound of Maitake or Hen of the Woods mushrooms but Wegmans nearly always has that.
I went to Costco to buy the 4 pounds of “regular” mushrooms (I bought mostly Baby Bellas) for the broth. I used the slicing blade of my cuisinart to cut everything up. I was surprised, the mushrooms nearly filled my stockpot. Once the mushrooms cooked they gave up most of their liquid and the broth turned dark and clear. It took a couple of hours just to put the broth together.
Then you have to slow cook carrots, leeks, and onions under a parchment lid for more than half an hour – throwing in garlic later on so it won’t burn. This gives you a sort of basis for the soup.
What made this a long recipe – each of the remaining constituents had to be cooked separately. The potato pieces are simmered in salted water and dried on a tray. The kale is de-veined, cut to 1" by 3" and blanched for 90 seconds in rapidly boiling salted water. The Maitake mushroom (which was like a big spherical sponge) is taken apart into “florets” (it has a structure like cauliflower) and sauteed with thyme and chopped shallots. Worst of all you need to have essentially a whole head of garlic turned into a fine puree. I actually was trying to push the stuff through a tamis when my wife pointed out it was time to go to the dinner party. I just gave up and put both the fine puree and the stuff that wouldn’t go through the tamis into the soup.

We took the hot broth in one pot and combined all the dry ingredients in the other to travel. Chef Keller says the wet and dry should be combined just before serving, so we managed to do that.

It was one of the most interesting soups I have tasted. He is right, the cavolo nero and the maitake give it a “dark” flavor that is intriguing, especially against the background of all that garlic and thyme. If you are a wine collector you know that the most “delicious” wine might not be the most “interesting” wine, some wines are “vins de contemplation.” This is a “soupe de contemplation”… I would make it again.

What recipes from Ad Hoc have YOU tried?

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Glad the soup was a success, Frank, but I don’t think the leaves in the picture are black/dinosaur/lacinato/Tuscan/Cavolo nero kale. Wrong color, wrong shape, or so it appears to me. The real McCoy:







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Thanks, that DOES look pretty different.

Why should it be so hard to find Tuscan Kale when I am surrounded by Jersey Shore “Guidos”???

Life is just unfair. Still, whatever that stuff was it tasted great in the soup.

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'Cause they’re Sicilian, not Tuscan. [wink.gif]

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Hey hey, Frank, chasing you from one board to another, yes I read both (is that a sin?).

Nice job with the prep pics. I also could not locate the Tuscan kale (in Atlanta), nor hen of the woods mushrooms, which are often available, alas. I know there a bunch of folks giving the Ad Hoc book a try (Dennis??). The ones I’ve heard universally praised are the fried chicken, the leek bread pudding, cauliflower soup, and the potato pave. I’ve made three of those and agree wholeheartedly (haven’t tackled the potato pave yet).

To that list of great recipes I would add the apple fritters, caramel ice cream, chocolate mint ice cream, the pickled carrots, and the feta with olives.

A notch below that at “very good” - the duck breast over winter vegetables, the peperonata rustica, asparagus with poached egg, the pickled cauliflower and the spiced mixed nuts.

In the “not worth the effort” category - well, the mushroom soup. Nice commentary on it being interesting moreso than delicious, I agree.

Some photos I’ve taken from a couple Ad Hoc at Home meals…

Feta with olives and piquillo pepper

Pickled carrots (with curry), cauliflower (with piment d’espelette), and haricots verts; spiced mixed nuts in the background

Leek bread pudding, duck breast over winter vegetables (kohlrabi, radish, brussel sprouts) - actually, are those really winter vegetables?

Apple fritters with caramel ice cream

Croutons, cauliflower soup with beet chips, mint ice cream, asparagus with poached egg, fried chicken, etc.

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Actually the first thing I made from Ad Hoc was the Cauliflower soup, from the NY Times “teaser” recipe, and in fact I found that boring, even with the beet chips etc., that’s one I would not make again. But tastes differ, obviously.

If you get a chance you might label those wonderful pictures for the folks here. I’m glad you posted here Brad, and I will change the header to this topic.

Because most people know that I am into Keller, I have had 3 separate people cook the leek bread pudding when they were having me over, so I haven’t even had to make that one myself. It is truly delicious but very rich. I think if I ever made it I would try to use the brioche that the recipe calls for, I doubt if any of my friends went to such lengths as that.

It is interesting that Robert found the kale in Atlanta and you didn’t. Where do you shop, Robert?

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I seldom actually buy Tuscan kale - my tastes are more aligned with your grandmother’s - but it is frequently available at

  • Whole Foods, Buckhead and Sandy Springs locations
  • Fresh Market, Roswell Rd. @ W. Wieuca
  • Morningside Farmers Market
  • Cathedral Farmer’s Market
    and less frequently, but not rarely, at
  • Kroger, Fountain Oaks
  • Publix, Chastain Square and Prado locations
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Re the cauliflower soup, I agree actually that the soup on its own was nothing special, but the beet chips and decadent croutons really elevated the dish.

(about to go back in and label the photos above…)

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We’ve made the Lentil/Sweet Potato soup, which was tasty, albeit a bit one-note. The blow torch prime rib was great on Xmas day. And I seem to remember making one of the potato dishes, but now I can’t remember which one. (Not the pave…)

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Made the pork tenderloin last night. By far the best tenderloin I have ever eaten. Reading some other threads on the brining, I reduced the time to 3 hours from 4 (some complained too salty) and it was perfectly salty. I took it out of oven at 135 and let rest. Meat was burgundy red in color all the way through and was very moist and very good. Of course we had to pair it with a red burgundy and it was perfect match. One ingredient are the cured lemons that need to be made 2 - 4 weeks before use and these are an important part of recipe I believe. In fact these lemons were first thing I made first night I got cookbook last year.
Also made melted onions both with all butter (decadent) and substituted olive oil (just as good, but different)
Santa Maria tri tip didnt work for me, but I think I over spiced it.
I thought cauliflower soup and croutons were great, will make again. The croutons are insane, almost didnt last until soup was finished!!
Looking forward to trying more soon.

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I have been thinking about it and I think there is a lesson here.

I skimped on the croutons for the cauliflower soup and didn’t like the result.

Brad skimped on the mushrooms for the mushroom soup and didn’t like the result.

I think if you cut ANY corners in one of these recipes, you will not know what you are missing. I think I can say that I would have found the mushroom soup MUCH less interesting without the cute little “Hen of the Woods” florets floating around in it. And it sounds like the people who loved the cauliflower soup LOVE those little buttery “torn” croutons.

So I should try the cauliflower soup again and make the croutons exactly according to directions…

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Frank,
Was that the Wegmans here in Woodbridge?

Looks like you got some ambiguous looking Swiss Chard.

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Yes, the Wegmans in Woodbridge, and no, I know what Chard looks like, this was nowhere big enough, and the stalks were not thick enough. I think maybe it was a hybrid between flat kale and cavolo nero, or some other variety of kale entirely. When I went 2 weeks ago what they had was LABELED Lacinato Kale, and looked more like Bob’s pictures. FWIW they also had Swiss Chard but on the other (right) side of the Produce area…

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Wasn’t implying anything Frank, from the photo you posted it looked like it might be some disfunctional chard.

The staff and quality of that produce dept sometimes leave something to be desired.

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Well, you don’t have an indicator of scale on my picture, those leaves are six or seven inches long…

Wegman’s is less than a mile from your shop I think?

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Typical of me, I made a recipe but changed it due to available ( in my fridge) products. I made the crispy braised Chicken thighs with olives, lemon and fennel ( p 30). First off, let me say that this turned out great. my better half, not knowing what I was making, thought it was terrific. Secondly, I should point out thsat I went backwards from what I believe most people would do. I looked at one ingredient and tried to find a recipe. in this case, my better half had a pack of Chicken thighs to cook. They were skinless, but we made it work. Finally, I should point out that I have had the book for 2 months but this was my FIRST recipe that I cooked from it.
Lucky for me I was able to acquire some precooked sauteed fennel from work, so that whole step was skipped. I used different olives ( name escapes me) and most important, the thighs had no skin. I also only had 5 thighs so I cut all ingredient measures in half.
MOP ( method of Production) went very well and the chicken came out a tad salty, but I attributed that to salting the chicken directly instead of on the skin. Everything took about an hour or so, but now that I have done it I think it can be a simple meal. EASY!!! I wish I was able to post pictures, but I am not that savvy. Enjoy though, it is good.

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Ken, I think Keller’s cookbooks make you think, and you find yourself coming up with new approaches. It’s great that that happened for you with the very first attempt. I would have been discouraged by the skinlessness – how can you have “crispy” chicken without skin? But as you say, it worked.

I have an example of Keller-style thinking, although it doesn’t relate to anything in his cookbooks. It is something I figured out for myself – listen, whoever is reading this, MAKE THIS because there is nothing simpler if you have the right ingredients.

There are only 3 ingredients. 1) a perfectly ripe Haas avocado. 2) a small yellow mango that is only available in part of the year and costs way more than the big green-orange mangoes. 3) a bottle of Major Grey’s mango chutney. Crosse and Blackwell is probably the best.

  1. cut the mango in half, scoop out each half, slice carefully into long lengthwise slices, and arrange around a plate (like rays of the sun). 2) You need to use your x-ray vision to figure out where the seed is in the mango. Cut off the right 1/3 and the left 1/3 (each is all “meat”) lay each cheek skin side down and cut lengthwise strips into the flesh and then turn the knife horizontal and remove the skin. Lay the long orange strips between the long green strips, arranged radially. 3) Spoon chutney evenly over the whole thing and eat.

The logic here is that the fresh mango pumps up the mango flavor in the chutney. The sweetness of the chutney and the fresh mango emphasize the wonderful umami flavor of the avocado. The sum is greater than the parts. There is almost a chocolate flavor in the addition somewhere. People roll their eyes when they taste this. And ask for more…

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Anyone done the Ad Hoc Fried Chicken from Williams Sonoma?

I just grab a bag of the brine while in there last weekend. Thought I would give it a shot.

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They sell the Brine? Interesting. I am hoping to go to WS next week when TK is in store to sign books (I have two as gifts in my mind already). I will look at it.

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I agree I have read virtually the whole book, using different takes that I have done or would do on the recipes. i think his description of the intention of the dish clarifies alot and allows for freedom of substitution. That being said, I think if I had the time and money to go exact item and direction for each dish, I think some would really be unbelievably good as evidenced by the anecdotes on the boards of individual’s attempts of these recipes.


Your avocado/mango sounds very tasty. Reminds me of the food movement now of seasonal and local. You also happened to pick two ingredients my kids love ( mangos and avocados) so I think I will have to try it.